مركز وثائق الثورة الإسلامية

Iran has on many occasions condemned the current makeup of the United Nations Security Council and called for major reforms there. This comes from the fact that their expectations from the council to stand by them as a defender of their rights have been hampered on many occasions.

Publish Date : 14:41 - 2015 October 31

The Islamic Republic of Iran
has been victim of numerous violations of international law and while it
expected the UN to come to its aid, it has been surprised to find that
the United Nations Security Council has not helped any, but on occasions
rather contributed to the country’s afflictions.

The
Iranian deputy permanent representative to the UN said on Friday that
reforming the UN Security Council is possible by participation of all
the members of the UN.

The
international community has reached the conclusion that the UN Security
Council cannot play its part in maintaining international peace and
security through its current strategies, Gholam-Hossein Dehqani said in
his speech at the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly in
New York on Friday.

"The
Security Council with, its current composition and working methods,
which are by far outdated, proved to be incapable to undertake its very
important responsibility of maintaining international peace and
security. The entire membership shares the goals of a more
representative, effective, democratic, accountable and transparent
Council. The question is: how to reach those goals?” Dehqani stated in
his speech.

"The
UN membership, during the 62nd Session of the General Assembly,
embarked on the process of IGN On the basis of Decision 62/557. This
Decision mandates this Assembly to achieve a holistic reform on five key
issues: categories of membership, the veto, size and working methods,
regional representation, and the relation between the Security Council
and the General Assembly and other important bodies. Expansion of the
Council is one of the elements of the overall reform while other four
elements are equally important and all five are linked. We believe that
no Council reform would be successful unless and until, all five
interrelated clusters are appropriately, comprehensively and inclusively
addressed.”

The
Iranian deputy permanent representative to the UN then added, "Despite
the lack of progress on the main issues, we still believe that the
process of the reform of the Council should not be subject to any
predetermined or superficial time-table. Any unconsidered and careless
decision would run the risk of harming this very delicate process which
is of vital importance and great interest for the whole membership and
the Organization and will have far-reaching impacts for the whole world.
Therefore, all efforts should be made to reach the broadest possible
agreement among the Member States. Text-based negotiation certainly is
one efficient way forward, at the same time we need to agree on such a
text. I wish to reiterate that Iran considers the IGN as the only
appropriate and irreplaceable forum. IGN must continue to be Member
States-driven and function on a fully comprehensive and transparent
manner.”

Iran
has grudges with the UN Security Council since the time of the civilian
Iran Air Flight 655 which was downed by the US Navy.

The
event triggered an intense international controversy, with Iran
condemning the U.S. attack. In mid-July 1988, Iranian Foreign Minister
Ali Akbar Velayati asked the United Nations Security Council to condemn
the United States saying the U.S. attack "could not have been a mistake"
and was a "criminal act", an "atrocity" and a "massacre". But the UN
body seemed to take all that unheeded.

Also
bitter for Iran was the UN Security Council Resolution 598 which ended
the Iran-Iraq war right at the time when Iran has found the upper hand.
Imam Khomeini referred to the adoption of the resolution as "drinking
poison”. It was bitter for Iranians to see that there was no mention of a
resolution to end the war during the long eight years they were
suffering losses to Iraq.

The
relations of Iran and the United Nations Security Council found a
special significance as the UN body moved to impose sanctions on Iran
following the nuclear dispute.

While
Iran was crying out against the sanctions imposed by the European Union
and the United States as unjust and expected international
organizations to fight them back, the United Nations Security Council
recognized those sanctions and even added more to the economic pressure
on Iran by adopting a resolution that was to further isolate the Islamic
Republic.

It
has been said that the Security Council’s strategy toward Iran in the
past 67 years can be described and explained through the "profit-seeking
approach of big powers.” To understand this strategy, one must first
pay due attention to various types of interactions among big powers with
veto right as well as their interaction with Iran during the past six
decades.

The
Security Council’s strategy toward Iran has been closely related to
international power blocs and power poles, expediencies as well as
strategic give-and-take among big powers, Iran's position in strategic
equations of big powers, as well as special relations between Israel and
the United States during the past six decades, Behzad Khoshandam, PhD
Candidate in International Relations & Expert on International
Issues has remarked in an article.

In
fact resolutions 1696 (2006), 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008),
1835 (2008), 1887 (2009), 1929 (2010), and 1984 (2011) which were
adopted by the Security Council on Iran's nuclear energy program, have
greatly served to pave the way for making interactions between Iran and
the international system more challenging following the 9/11 terror
attacks in the United States. Meanwhile, it should not be forgotten that
before Iran's nuclear case was referred to the Security Council,
reactions shown by that council to political developments in
Afghanistan, Iraq, and Israel, had remarkable effects on the national
interests of Iran.

All
these historical records have testified to Iran that the UN Security
Council has not helped the country’s national interests, that being why
the Iranian authorities have on many occasions called for reform in the
makeup of the body to make it more equitable.